1 Sam. 10:7
Col. 3:23–24
Psalm 127
AE 7:366-7: Accordingly, let those who want to live in a godly manner fear God and trust in Him, and then let them attend to their calling. Then they will have more than enough to do. Let them commend their way to the Lord, in the morning and in the evening. Let them sleep in the name of the Lord, rise from their beds, and do what comes to hand in whatever kind of life. Thus Samuel says to Saul: “Do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you” (1 Sam. 10:7). Then all will be done well, and all your works, even those done in fun, will be most pleasing spectacles to God and the angels. Thus this game pleased God. Otherwise it would not have been praised by the Holy Spirit.
AE 21: 256: Before God all the monks and hermits are foolishness in comparison with one pious child, servant, or maid who is obedient and faithful in the performance of his duty. Just do what a pious man or woman should do, and you will have a rule more stringent than the rules, the cowls, and the tonsures of Francis and all the monks, which are more likely to cover a villain than a pious Christian. Our crazy reason refuses to pay attention to this. It decries it and thinks to itself: “Why, that is an ordinary thing that anyone could do in his own home!” It yearns for something else that is strange and special, stares at it, and lets itself be led by all the clatter.
AE 21:266: Learn to look at your station on the basis of this statement, and draw this conclusion from it: “Thank God, I know now that I am in a good and blessed station, one that pleases God. Though it may be annoying to my flesh and contain a great deal that is troubling and disgusting, I shall cheerfully put up with all that. Here I have the comfort that Christ says: ‘A sound tree bears good fruit.’ He says this about every station that is grounded in the Word of God, though it may be despised and decried by the world and the special saints…In other words, reason is unable to judge here, or to see the goodness in its station and its works, or to get any joy or pleasure out of them. Instead, it praises the exact opposite. If this were visible to us, we would live in sheer joy and bear and endure with a joyful heart whatever God lays upon us, being certain that because the tree is sound, the fruit also must be good. When a pious hired man is hauling a wagonload of manure to the field, he is actually hauling a wagonload of precious figs and grapes—but in the sight of God, not in our own sight, since we do not believe, so that everyone gets tired of his station and goes staring at another one.
From Luther on Ecclesiastes 9:10, have a merry heart and do what lies at hand. “Do not think that you first have to look at the total plan and progress of the world, if you are to know what action swill now make sense, and where they will lead!” (Bayer, Living by Faith, 36).
Bayer, Living By Faith, 37–38, esp. “The fact that we cannot penetrate the web of motives behind our actions, and fail to foresee, let alone to predetermine, their results, should not prevent the concern and the basic needs of our neighbors and all our fellow creatures from showing us plainly enough what we ought to do. “Whatever you hand finds to do, do it with all your might!” Those whom God justifies “will always be content to do what lies at hand today.” They must not seek to “master and control what things and relations will be in the future.” The justified advance no claim to totality in what they do. On the contrary, they can be extremely skeptical about such claims because their justification does not depend on success. They are not condemned to success.”
66: Baptism gives “a new perception of the world in which we no longer have to choose between optimism and pessimism, between shrill anxiety about the future and euphoric hope regarding the further evolution of the cosmos and the enhancement of its possibilities…Luther’s distinctive courage, which goes beyond optimism and pessimism, is grounded in Baptism. It may be seen in a saying that was not his own, although it fits his understanding very well: ‘Even though the world perish tomorrow, today I will still plan a little apple tree.’”
Ladylike, 122: “The beauty of vocation is not that whatever we’re good at is good for us to do, but that whatever God have given us to do is good…We often think of vocational questions as ‘What does God want me to do?’ A better way of putting it is, ‘What would a Christian in my position do?’”
Mayes, “Luther on Vocation and Baptism: A Correction to Charismatic and Situational Ways of Discerning God’s Call,” CTQ 82:45-64.
Nagel: "When the Lord said, 'Follow me,' to Matthew, Matthew was given to. He is made alive as a man that wasn't alive before. That 'Follow me' is Gospel."